It's always darkest before the dawn
by xxbookwormmockingjayxx
Summary: A one-shot story for Jessica from her time in the mines until she reaches the other survivors at the lodge. R&R


"Oh Death won't you spare me over till another year?"

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My eyes flutter open and for a moment I don't know where I am. But the memories start to come back and I remember Mike, the mines, and then falling. Something grabbed me, dragged me through the snow too fast to be anything human and carried me to these God forsaken mines. Then I remember that my friends don't know what is down here and I know that I have to try to reach them, to warn them. I start to get up but then a shock wave of pain wracks throughout my body and tears well up in my eyes.

"Shit" I mutter and then I start to sob. I don't think I will be able to stand at first but I manage to pull myself up and I grab my right side where I think some of my ribs must be broken or bruised. I shiver from the cold and the realization that I am in my underwear sinks in, I look around and see an old mining coat and an old pair of boots and I slowly shuffle my way over to them. I start to slip the coat on wincing at the pain with every movement and then I slip the boots on. I hear a screech from somewhere in the mines and my head whips around peering into the darkness wondering if that "thing" will come out to finish me off.

I see a silvery glint on the ground and I reach for it finding out that it is a shovel I pick it up. If that fucker comes to kill me I won't go down without a fight. I start to move down the mine slowly wincing at every step, trying to keep my footfalls quiet as to not let that creature know where I am at. I see a flash of light further ahead and I see a figure with its back turned to me and I think it is my captor. I slowly make my way up to the man and I swing my shovel at him, they turn and grab my shovel and I look into their eyes and I realize it's Matt.

"Jesus Jessica what happened to you" he asks in shock. "Everyone thinks you're dead."

"To be honest I did too" I mutter quietly.

"Listen" he says. "There is something on this mountain, it's not human."

"I know," I say to him, "It dragged me into the mines."

"Dragged you?" He questions. "God Jess that's horrible, we have to get to the others and warn them before it kills them."

I nod in agreement and we start to walk down the darkened mines; Matt's lantern lighting our path. Another screech echoes down the mines and I clench to Matt's arm, my breaths quickening.

"Jess over here" he says quietly, and motions over to a small opening to the wall. We walk into a tiny room and we back ourselves to the wall. I hear the monster crawling this way and I grab Matt's hand as I close my eyes a few tears streaming down my face. I hear that thing right outside screeching and sniffing before making its way further down the mine.

"Stay here," he says before slowly making his way over to the opening of the room. I grab his arm not wanting him to go out there in case it comes back. He walks to me and holds both of my hands.

"Jess I promise you that I will get us both out of here" he says his brown eyes looking into my blue. "I won't let anything hurt you."

I look down for a moment, and then I begin to walk with him out of the tiny room into the mines. He takes the lead and in one hand he extends the lantern out in front of him and in his other hand he holds my hand as we make our way down the seemingly never ending tunnel. Then we hear the awful screech from behind us and we begin to run I ignore the pain as we make our way down the mines. We come to an area where the opening of the cave is boarded up.

"Back up," he says to me and I do so. My head whips back towards the dark tunnel hearing the monster make its way down to us and I turn back to Matt. He runs and breaks through the opening and he reaches his hand out for me and I hurry and grab it and we make our way out and I take a huge breath of fresh air. He pulls me to the side of the wall and he motions for me to be still. And that is when I see it for the first time. Its grey skin, its sharp teeth, and its butterfly tattoo. Tears stream out of my eyes as it crawls away as the realization hits me. That monster is Hannah. I am brought out of my thoughts by Matt asking if I am okay.

"I'm fine," I say back to him and then I look towards the woods. "We have to get back to the lodge" I say to him. He nods in agreement and we make our way down to the woods. My hand still clenches his but he doesn't seem to mind.

"Jess," he says, "What do you think will happen after we get out of here?"

"I don't know Matt" I reply. "I guess we try to forget."

We come up to a ledge and Matt hops down first and then picks me up and sets me down with him. I smile at his gallant gesture and I wonder why he started dating Emily.

"Hey Matt," I ask, "How did you and Emily start dating?"

"Well," he said, "It was right after her and Mike broke up, I just wanted to make her smile because she seemed so distraught over the whole situation. We began talking, and then we started getting coffee, and then before either of us really knew it we were dating."

"Its people like you who don't deserve any of this," I say to him, "Your too nice to people."

"I still was a part of the prank that made Hannah and Beth go missing," he says, and for a moment he just looked down at the ground. I look into his eyes and I see the pain he still has over the situation and I feel the same way.

"It's my fucking fault," I say to him, if I hadn't thought of that stupid prank none of this would have happened and we would all be graduating together like we planned."

"They're alive in our hearts and that is what we have to remember." he says. I nod in agreement and we start off again through the wilderness. I look up to the sky and I see the rosy colors of dawn start to spread across the sky as the world began to wake up once again. We stumble into the clearing and I see the lodge up in flames, out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and my head whipped around expecting to see one of those creatures but instead I see our friends huddled together away from the inferno. I notice one turns around and I see him, Mike. I start to sprint towards him and I lunge into his open embrace and I begin to cry.

"J-Jess," he says in disbelief, "I thought you were dead."

"I'm right here." I say to him clenching onto him tighter not wanting this moment to end.

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A/N So I am getting back into writing so I am so sorry for any grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes! I really hope you all enjoyed my first Until Dawn story and I hope you liked how I portrayed Jess and Matt. I would love to know what you all thought of this story!


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